Hard drive (I think I've eliminated everything else) is freezing after about five minutes of use. The drive is an old 1.5 GB samsung (win 98 OS). I have ran the Samsung hard drive diagnostics - passes all tests; I've run Norton disk doctor the hard ware test passed the windows file test failed and the program rectified the problems. I have fdisked and reformatted several times but I am still getting the freezing (which can only be escaped by a hard reboot). I have tried running the trial version of 'Hard drive mechanic' - this is a small program which is loaded onto a floppy and run from the floppy - this program found errors but surprise, surprise, the trial version won't make repairs, I could buy the full version of this or I might have a look at 'Spinrite' the Steve Gibson solution. Do the FATs on hard drives get corrupted beyond recovery - I believe there is a spare mirror of the FAT on a FAT 32 drive? Can anyone help me out with this please> Thanks DaveB

If, in fact this is your HD "freezing" it may be related to heat. The bearings may be shot. I believe that if the file allocation tables were both corrupted you wouldn't be able to enter Windows. I wouldn't waste money on a program to repair this drive. If data needs to be recovered I suggest a new HD with your OS installed on it. Configure the second drive as the master on the second channel. Upon bootup, copy as much data as possible before the disk quits. Repeat as necessary.

Try another tool like WD's DLG diagnostics, run both quick and extended test from DOS. If both tests are passed then write zeroes to the drive and reload the system again. Whom are you on computing.net?

thanks guys Dave